In many instances, passenger vehicles, such as aircraft, buses, trains, ships, and automobiles, include passenger seats that are arranged so that each passenger seat, other than the forward-most located passenger seats, faces the back of the next forward passenger seat. The passenger seats may include various movable/deployable components. For example, the passenger seats may include headrests, footrests, and tray tables that are movable relative to the seat. To increase a passenger's comfort, many passenger seat backs rotate between upright and reclined positions.
In some instances, a tray table may be mounted adjacent the back of each passenger seat for use by a passenger in the next aft passenger seat. The tray table is deployed by the passenger to provide a relatively flat surface for eating, working, recreation, or other uses.
In many conventional uses, the tray table may be mounted to the back of each passenger seat via a pair of retractable arms that allow the tray table to be pulled toward the passenger when deployed. However, conventional tray tables typically have poor sliding quality due to problems related to binding of the components operable for the linear sliding of the tray table for deploying/retracting the tray table. These problems may also be present for other components, such as headrests or footrests. For tray tables, binding problems are exacerbated in bi-fold table designs where the length of the contact surface for each slide (relative to the slide housing) is much smaller than the distance between the two slides (on each side of the tray).
As a result, there is a need for new sliding mechanisms based on kinematic analysis that eliminate the binding associated with typical seat components (such as tray tables) and create predictable and smooth sliding action. In addition to reducing binding and poor sliding quality of typical seat components, new sliding mechanisms improve passenger experience due to improved ergonomics, reduce long term maintenance/repair costs, reduce weight, and simplify manufacturing and assembly of the passenger seat.